Multichannel Marketing
Today’s successful companies typically employ multichannel marketing, using two or more marketing channels to reach customer segments in one market area. HP uses its sales force to sell to large accounts, outbound telemarketing to sell to medium-sized accounts, direct mail with an inbound phone number to sell to small accounts, retailers to sell to still smaller accounts, and the Internet to sell specialty items. Each channel can target a different segment of buyers, or different need states for one buyer, to deliver the right products in the right places in the right way at the least cost.
Research has shown that multichannel customers can be more valuable to marketers.5 Nordstrom found that its multichannel customers spend four times as much as those who only shop through one channel, though some academic research suggests that this effect is stronger for hedonic products (apparel and cosmetics) than for functional products (office and garden supplies).6
Integrating Multichannel Marketing Systems
Most companies today have adopted multichannel marketing. Companies are increasingly employing digital distribution strategies, selling directly online to customers or through e-merchants who have their own Web sites. These firms are seeking to achieve omnichannel marketing, in which multiple channels work seamlessly together and match each target customer’s preferred ways of doing business, delivering the right product information and customer service regardless of whether customers are online, in the store, or on the phone.
In an integrated marketing channel system, the strategies and tactics of selling through one channel reflect the strategies and tactics of selling through one or more other channels. Adding more channels gives companies three important benefits: (1) increased market coverage, (2) lower channel cost, and (3) the ability to do more customized selling. However, new channels typically introduce conflict and problems with control and cooperation. Two or more may end up competing for the same customers.7 Clearly, companies need to think through their channel architecture and determine which channels should perform which functions.8
